the weekly pencil.

Ever since CW Pencil Enterprise began carrying the Camel HB in their store, I was in love. The unique ferrule-less design drew me in and I was excited to try out some good Japanese graphite. My first impression when observing the Camel is it's nice maple, golden brown color (it actually reminded me of the color of a camel). The contrast of the bright white stamping on the barrel really makes the branding pop and goes along great with the eraser.
The Camel sharpens really well. Not a single point break or crumble and the point retention is perfect for my heavy writing days. I must say that I am not sure if this is due to the fact that I am slowly learning that pressing hard is not a necessity, or if it is really that good, but measures such as point retention and graphite darkness are subjective anyway. The eraser is quite the opposite and very disappointing. I really did want to love the eraser since I had never seen a pencil without a ferrule before, but this eraser falls flat. It smudges more than erases and when it does erase you have to press down really hard and risk ripping your paper. I very quickly switched and used my Mitsubishi Boxy as it was becoming near impossible to work with. I was curious as to how the eraser was attached onto the barrel of the pencil, so I twisted it off and it is just a pencil cap of sorts:

While I was disappointed by this discovery, an eraser does make a pencil. With a price point of $1.50 a pencil at CW Pencils, the Camel is moderately priced. If you are placing an order with Caroline, throw one in your bag; it's not a "must own" pencil, but definitely earned its keep this week. Overall 7.5/10